'Planning Cities for Families' kicks off Toronto's 2014 Chief Planner Roundtable series

City of Toronto Media Relations has issued the following:

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News Release:  April 22, 2014           

'Planning Cities for Families' kicks off Toronto's 2014 Chief Planner Roundtable series

The City of Toronto's Chief Planner Roundtable series kicks off its second year of stimulating conversation to effect change with a discussion that will focus on planning cities for families.

Members of the public are welcome to attend the roundtable on Thursday, April 24 from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in Committee Room 1 at Toronto City Hall, 100 Queen St. W.

The Chief Planner Roundtable is a discussion forum focused on key city-building challenges.

The first of two sessions for 2014, called "Planning Cities for Families," looks at why families and children matter for the future of cities, and examines how Toronto measures up in terms of satisfying the needs of families within the planning process.

The conversation will focus on a few key areas and address questions such as:

• Are city builders aware of the special needs of families with young children?

• What barriers currently exist to the creation of family-friendly cities, neighbourhoods and buildings, and what can city builders do to change this?

• Does Toronto have the amenities, services, affordability and infrastructure to satisfy the needs of families and retain residents across their whole life cycle?

The roundtable discussion is structured into three segments: setting the stage, reviewing key questions and positioning change. The goal of the discussion is to produce a series of action items that will identify immediate steps for addressing challenges and set the stage for future initiatives.

The roundtables bring together industry experts, City staff and stakeholders in discussions about challenges and opportunities on themes that affect strong city building.

In 2013, the Chief Planner Roundtables got off to a successful start by engaging more than 2,600 participants in conversations, both in person and online. The action items from the 2013 roundtable discussions can be found in two summary documents that were produced after last year's events. The summary documents are available on the Chief Planner Roundtable website identified below.

Members of the public who are interested in attending the upcoming event are asked to RSVP by emailing chiefplannerroundtable@toronto.ca. There is limited seating in the main room.

Those unable to attend in person can watch the conversation via Rogers TV livestream, which can be accessed from the link below. You can also monitor the conversation on twitter by following @CityPlanTO and by searching the hashtag #CProundtable.

Further information about the roundtables is available at http://www.toronto.ca/planning/chiefplannerroundtable.

Toronto is Canada's largest city, the fourth largest in North America, and home to a diverse population of about 2.8 million people. It is a global centre for business, finance, arts and culture and is consistently ranked one of the world's most livable cities. Toronto is proud to be the Host City for the 2015 Pan American and Parapan American Games. For information on non-emergency City services and programs, Toronto residents, businesses and visitors can visit http://www.toronto.ca, call 311, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, or follow us @TorontoComms.

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Media contact: Bruce Hawkins, Strategic Communications, 416-392-3496, bhawkin@toronto.ca